Ten Prayers by Louis-Claude de Saint-

Martin
FIRST PRAYER

Source of all which is, Thou who sendest spirits of error and of darkness to the
untruthful, which cut them off from Thy love, do Thou send unto him who seeks Thee a
spirit of truth, uniting him for ever with Thee. May the fire of this spirit consume me all
the traces of the old man, and, having consumed them, may it produce from those ashes
a new man, on whom Thy sacred hand shall not disdain to pour a holy Chrism! Be this
the end of penitence and its long toils, and may Thy life, which is one everywhere,
transform my whole being in the unity of Thine image, my heart in the unity of Thy
love, my activity in the unity of the works of justice, and my thought in the unity of all
lights. Thou dost impose great sacrifices on man, only to compel him to seek in Thee all
his riches and all his delights, and Thou dost force him to seek all these treasures in
Thee only because Thou knowest that they alone can make him happy, for Thou alone
dost possess them, who hast engendered and created them. Truly, O God of my life, I
can find nowhere save in Thee the root and realisation of my being. Thou also bast said
that in the heart of man alone canst Thou find Thy repose. Cease not, therefore, for one
instant thine operations upon me, that not only may I live, but that Thy name may be
known among the nations. Thy prophets have declared that the dead cannot praise Thee;
let death then never come near me, for I burn to offer Thee immortal praise ; I burn with
desire that the Eternal Son of Truth may never have to reproach the heart of man with
the smallest clouding of Thy splendour or the least diminution of its fulness. God of my
life, the utterance of whose Name accomplishes all things, restore to my nature that
which Thou didst first impart to it, and I will manifest that Name among the nations,
and they shall learn that Thou alone art their God, Thou alone their essential life, as
Thou only art the movement and motive principle of all beings. Do Thou sow the seed
of Thy desires in the soul of man, in that field where none can contest with Thee, since
it is Thou who hast brought it into existence. Sow Thy desires therein, that the soul, by
the force of Thy love, may be snatched from the depths which hold it and would
swallow it up for ever. Abolish for me the realm of images; scatter the fantastic barriers
which place an immense interval and spread thick darkness between Thy living light
and me, entombing me in their folds. Show unto me the sacred character and the divine
seal of which Thou art the custodian; pierce the centre of my soul with the fire which
burns in Thee, that my soul may burn with Thee till it knows Thine ineffable life and the
inexhaustible delights of Thine eternal existence. Too feeble to endure the weight of Thy
Name, I leave in Thy hands the task of erecting its complete edifice and of laying
Thyself its first foundations in the depths of that soul which Thou has given me for a
torch, showing light to the nations, that they may no more dwell in darkness. Thanks be
unto Thee, O God of peace and love ! thanks be unto Thee, because Thou hast been
mindful of me, and hast not willed that my soul should want, lest Thine enemies should
say that the Father forges His children or is unable to deliver them.

SECOND PRAYER

I will approach Thee , Thou God of my being; I will approach Thee, all unclean as I
am ; I will show myself with confidence before Thee; I will come unto Thee in the name
of Thine eternal existence, in the name of my life, in the name of Thy holy alliance with
man. This threefold offering shall be for Thee an acceptable sacrifice, on which Thy
Spirit shall send down its divine fire, to consume and transport it to Thy sacred abode,
all charged and filled with the desires of a needy soul sighing only after Thee. Lord,
Lord ! when shall I hear Thee utter in the abyss of my soul that consoling and living
word which calls on man by his name, proclaiming his enrolment in the heavenly army,
and Thy will that he should be numbered among Thy servants ? By the power of that
holy word shall I find myself speedily encompassed by the eternal memorials of Thy
power and love, with which I shall boldly advance against Thine enemies, and they shall
flee before the dread lightnings flashing from Thy victorious word. Alas, O Lord ! shall
a man of misery and darkness cherish such high aspirations, such proud hopes? In place
of smiting the enemy, must he not seek only a shield from their blows? Furnished no
longer with shining arms, is he not, as a despicable object, reduced to tears of shame
and ignominy in the thickets of his retreat, unable to show himself before the day ? In
place of those triumphant anthems which once followed him in his conquests, is he not
doomed only to be heard amid sighs and groans ? Vouchsafe at least one boon, O Lord,
that whensoever Thou searchest my heart and my reins, Thou shalt never find them void
of Thy praise and love. I feel, and would feel unceasingly, that all time is enough for
Thy praise, that to accomplish this holy work in a manner which is worthy of Thee, my
entire being must be possessed and set in motion by Thine eternity. Grant, therefore, O
God of all life and all love, that my soul may reinforce its weakness with Thy strength ;
permit it to enter into a holy league with Thee, by which I shall be invincible in the sight
of my enemies, which shall bind me so to Thee by the desires of my heart and of Thine,
that Thou shalt ever find me as zealous for Thy service and glory as Thou, O Lord, art
eager for my deliverance and beatitude.

THIRD PRAYER

Spouse of my soul! by whom it has conceived the desire of wisdom, aid me Thyself to
give birth to this well-beloved son, whom I can never cherish sufficiently. So soon as he
beholds the light, immerse him in the pure baptismal waters of Thy life-giving Spirit,
and be he ever numbered among the faithful members of the Church of the Most High.
Like a tender mother, do Thou take him in Thine arms till his feeble limbs have strength
for his support, and shield him from all that is harmful. Spouse of my soul! unknown
except by the humble, I do homage to Thy power, and I would not confide to other
hands than Thine this son of love whom Thou hast given me. Nourish him Thyself,
watch over his early steps instruct him when he grows in the honour which he owes to
his Father, that his days may be long on the earth; inspire him with respect and love for
the might and the virtues of Him who hath given him being. Spouse of my soul! inspire
me also, me first, to nourish this precious child unceasingly with spiritual milk, which
Thou has formed Thyself in my breast. May I ever behold in my son the image of his
Father, in his Father the likeness of my son, and of all those whom Thou mayst
engender within me through the unbroken course of the eternities. Spouse of my soul!:
known only to the sanctified, be Thou at once the mentor and model of this child of Thy
Spirit, that in all times and places his works and example may proclaim his heavenly
origin. Place Thou also at length on his head the crown of glory, and he shall be an
everlasting monument before the peoples of the majesty of Thy Name. Spouse of my
soul! such are the delights which Thou preparest for those who love Thee and seek for
union with Thee. Perish everlastingly him who would tempt me to break our sacred
alliance! Perish everlastingly him who would persuade me to prefer another spouse!
Spouse of my soul! take me Thyself for Thine own child; let me be one with him in
Thine eyes, and pour on us each all graces which we cannot both receive from Thy love.
I can live no more if the voices of myself and my son be forbidden to unite for the
eternal celebration of Thy praises in canticles, like inexhaustible rivers ever engendered
by the sense of Thy wonders and Thy power ineffable.

FOURTH PRAYER

How should I dare , O Lord, for one instant to gaze on myself without trembling at the
horror of my misery! I dwell in the midst of my own iniquities, the fruit of all manner of
excesses, which have become even as a vestment; I have outraged all my laws, I have
misused my soul, I have abused my body; I have turned, and do turn daily, to an ill
account all the graces which Thy love showers continually on Thine ungrateful and
faithless creature. To Thee should I sacrifice all, giving nothing unto time, which in Thy
sight is like an idol, void of life and understanding; yet I devote all unto time and
nothing unto Thee. Thus do I cast myself beforehand into the abyss of confusion, given
over to idolatrous worship, where Thy name is not known. I have acted like the
senseless and ignorant of this world, who expend all their efforts to annul the dread
decrees of justice and to render this place of probation no longer one of toil and
suffering in their eyes. God of peace and God of truth, if the confession of my faults be
insufficient for their remission, remember Him who took them on Himself, washing
them in the blood of His body, His soul, and His love. Like fire, which consumes all
material and impure substances, like this fire which is His image, He returns to Thee,
free from all stains of earth. In Him and by Him alone can the work of my purification
and rebirth be fulfilled. In Him alone can Thy sacred majesty endure to regard man,
through whom also Thou willest our cure and our salvation. Gazing with the eyes of His
love, which cleanses all, Thou dost see no longer any deformity in man, but only that
divine spark which is in Thine own likeness, which Thy sacred ardour draws perpetually
to itself, as a property of Thy divine source. O Lord, Thou canst contemplate only that
which is true and pure as Thyself; evil is beyond the reach of Thine exalted sight, and
hence the evil man is like one whom Thou rememberest no more, whom Thine eyes
cannot fix, since he has no longer any correspondence with Thee. In this abyss of horror
I have, notwithstanding, dared to dwell; there is no other place for man who is not
immersed in the abyss of Thy compassion. Yet no sooner does he turn his heart and eyes
from the depths of iniquity than he finds himself in that ocean of mercy which
encompasses all Thy creatures. So will I bow myself before Thee in my shame and the
sense of my misery; the fire of my suffering shall dry up within me the abyss of my
sinfulness, and there shall remain for me only the eternal kingdom of Thy mercy.

FIFTH PRAYER

Take back my will , O Lord, take back my will; for if I can suspend it one instant before
Thee, the torrents of Thy life and light, having nothing to resist them, shall pour
impetuously within me. Help me to break down the woeful barriers which divide me
from thee; arm me against myself; triumph within me over all Thine enemies and mine
by subduing my will. O Eternal Principle of all joy and of all truth! when shall I be so
renewed as no longer to be conscious of self, save in the permanent affection of Thine
exclusive and vivifying will? When shall every kind of privation appear to me a profit
and advantage, by preserving me from all bondage, and leaving me ample means to bind
myself to the freedom of Thy spirit and wisdom? When shall evils appear to me as
favours extended by Thee, as so many opportunities of Victory, so many occasions of
receiving from Thy hand the crowns of glory which Thou dost distribute to all those
who fight in Thy name? When shall all advantages and joys of this life become to me as
so many snares, unceasingly set by the enemy that he may establish in our heart a god of
lying and seduction in place of that God of peace and truth who should reign there for
ever? When, in fine, shall the holy zeal of Thy love and the ardour of my union with
Thee rule me to renounce with delight my life, my happiness, with all affections foreign
to this sole end of Thy creature man, so loved by Thee that Thou hast given Thyself all
for him, that he might be inflamed by Thine example? I know, O Lord, that whosoever
is not transported by this holy devotion is not worthy of Thee, and has not yet made the
first step in Thy path. The knowledge of Thy will and the solicitude of the faithful never
to depart from it for a moment, herein is the one, the true resting-place for the soul of
man; he cannot enter therein without being filled immediately with rapture, as if all his
being were renewed and revivified in all its faculties by the springs of Thine own life,
nor can he withdraw therefrom without beholding himself given over forthwith to all the
horrors of uncertainty, danger, and death. Hasten, God of consolation, hasten, God of
power, to communicate to my heart one of those pure movements of Thy holy and
invincible will! One only is needed to establish the reign of Thine eternity, and for
constant and universal resistance of all alien wills which combine in my soul, mind, and
body to give battle thereto. Then shall I abandon myself to my God in the sweet effusion
of my faith, then shall I proclaim His wonderful works. Men are not worthy of Thy
wonders, or to contemplate the sweetness of Thy wisdom, the profundity of Thy
counsels; and I, vile insect that I am, can I even dare to name them, who merit only
visitations of justice and wrath? Lord, Lord! may the star of Jacob rest for a moment
upon me; may Thy holy light be kindled in my thought, and Thy will most pure in my
heart!

SIXTH PRAYER

Hearken, my soul , hearken, and be consoled in thy distress! There is a mighty God who
undertakes to heal all thy wounds. He alone has this supreme power, and He exercises it
only towards those who acknowledge that He possesses it and is its zealous
administrator. Come not before him in disguise like the wife of Jeroboam whom the
prophet overwhelmed with reproaches; come rather with the humility and confidence
which should be inspired by a sense of thy frightful evils, and of that Universal Power
which willeth not the death of a sinner, since it is He who created souls. Let time fulfil
its law upon thee in all the things of time; speed not thy work by disorders; delay it not
by false desires and vain speculations, the heritage of the fool. Concerned alone with
thine interior cure, thy spiritual deliverance, collect with care the scant forces which
each temporal period develops within thee ; make use of these secret motions of life to
draw nearer daily unto Him who already would possess thee in His breast, and share
with thee the sweet freedom of a being who enjoys fully the use of all his faculties
without ever encountering a hindrance. Whensoever these happy ecstasies transport
thee, raise thyself on thy bed of sorrow, and cry unto this God of mercy and
almightiness: Lord, wilt Thou leave to languish in bondage and shame this former
image of Thyself, whom the ages may have buried under their dust but have never been
able to efface? It dared to misconceive Thee in those days when it dwelt in the
splendour of Thy glory. Thou hadst only to close the eye of Thine eternity, and it was
plunged from that instant into darkness, as into the depths of the abyss. Since that
deplorable lapse it has become the daily scorn of all its enemies, who not contented to
cover it with derision, have filled it with their poisons, have loaded it with chains so that
it could no longer defend itself, but became an easier prey to their envenomed darts.
Lord, Lord! is not this long and humiliating ordeal sufficient for man to recognise Thy
justice and do homage to Thy power? Has not this infected mass of its enemy’s
contempt enervated long enough the image of Thyself to open his eyes and convince
him of his illusions? Dost Thou not fear that in the end these corrosive substances may
entirely efface its imprint and place it beyond recognition? The enemies of Thy light and
Thy wisdom would not fail to confound this long chain of my degradations with Thine
eternity itself; they would believe their reign of horror and disorder is the sole abode of
truth; they would claim themselves victorious over Thee and possessed of Thy kingdom.
Permit not, therefore, longer, O God of zeal and jealousy, the profanation of Thine
image; the desire of Thy glory fills me more than any desire of my happiness apart from
that glory of Thine Rise on Thy throne immortal, the throne of Thy wisdom, ablaze with
the marvels of Thy power; enter for a moment that holy vineyard which Thou hast
planted from all eternity; pluck but one of those vivifying grapes which it produces
unceasingly; let the sacred and regenerating juice flow upon my lips; it will moisten my
parched tongue, it will enter into my heart, it will bear to it both joy and life, it will
penetrate all my members and will make them strong and healthy. Then shall I be quick,
agile, vigorous as on that first day when I came forth from Thy hands. Then shall Thine
enemies, frustrated in their hopes, blush with shame and tremble with fear and rage to
see their opposition against Thee made vain and the accomplishment of my sublime
destiny despite their daring and persistent efforts. Hearken then, O my soul! hearken,
and be consoled in thy distress! A mighty God there is who hath undertaken the healing
of thy wounds.

SEVENTH PRAYER

I present myself at the gates of the temple of my God, and I will quit not this humble
asylum of the indigent till I have received my daily bread from the Father of my life.
Behold the mystery of this bread! I have tasted thereof, and I will proclaim its sweetness
to unborn nations. The Eternal God of Beings; the sacred title taken by Him who is
made flesh that He might be manifested to the visible and invisible nations; the spirit of
Him at whose Name every knee shall bow, in heaven, on earth, and in hell; such are the
three immortal elements which compose this daily bread. It is multiplied unceasingly,
like the immensity of beings who are nourished thereby, and, whatsoever be their
number, never can they diminish its abundance. It has developed in me the eternal
germs of my life, and has enabled them to circulate in my veins the sacred sap of my
original and divine roots. The four elements which compose it have dispelled darkness
and confusion from the chaos of my heart; they have restored to it the living and holy
light; their creative force has transformed me into a new being, and I have become the
custodian and administrator of their sacred characters and lifegiving signs. Therefore, as
His angel and minister have I shown myself in all regions, to make known the glory of
Him who hath chosen man; I have reviewed all the work of His hands and have
distributed to each of them those signs and characters which He has impressed on me in
order that they might be transmitted to them. and to confirm the properties and powers
which they have received. But my ministry has not been confined to operation on the
regular works of Eternal Wisdom; I have approached whatsoever was deformed, and
have set on these fruits of disorder the signs of justice and vengeance attached to the
secret powers of my election; those which I could snatch from corruption I have offered
as a holocaust to the supreme God, and I have composed my perfumes of the pure
praises of my mind and heart, so that all which lives may confess that the homage, the
glory, the honour are due unto this sole supreme God as the source of power and justice.
I have exclaimed in the transports of my love: Blessed is man, because Thou hast
elected him as the seat of Thine authority and the minister of Thy glory in the universe.
Blessed is man, because Thou hast permitted him to feel, even in the depths of his
essence, the penetrating activity of Thy divine life. Blessed is man, because he may dare
to offer Thee a sacrifice of thanksgiving founded in the ineffable sentiment of all the
wishes of Thy holy infinity. Powers of the material world! powers of the physical
universe! not thus hath God treated you! He has constituted you the simple agents of
His laws and the forces operating for the fulfilment of His designs. Hence is there no
other being in Nature which does not second Him in His work and co-operate in the
execution of His plans. But He is not made known to you as the God of peace and the
God of love; at the moment when He brought you into being ye were disturbed by the
consequences of rebellion, since He ordained man to subdue and govern you. Still less,
ye perverted and corrupt powers, has He dispensed to you those favours with which He
has deigned to overwhelm man. Ye have failed to preserve those which were granted
you by virtue of your origin; ye dreamed of a brighter lot and a more splendid privilege
than to be the objects of His tenderness, from which moment ye have deserved only to
be the victims of His justice. To man alone has He confided the treasures of His
wisdom; on this being after His own heart has He centred all His affection and all His
powers. Sovereign Author of my spirit, my soul, and my heart! be Thou blessed for ever
and in all places, because Thou hast permitted man, Thine ungrateful and criminal
creature, to recover these sublime truths. Had the memory of Thine ancient and sacred
covenant bound not Thy love to restore them, they would have been lost unto man for
ever. Praise and benediction to Him who hath formed man in His image and after His
own likeness, who, despite all the endeavours and all the triumphs of hell, hath
reclothed him in his splendour, in the wisdom and the beatitudes of his origin. Amen.

EIGHTH PRAYER

Men of peace and men of aspirations ! let us contemplate in unison, with a holy fear, the
vastness of the mercies of our God. Let us confess to Him together that all the thoughts
of men, all their purest desires, all their ordered deeds, could not, when combined,
approach the smallest act of His love. How should we therefore express it? for it is
confined to no individual deeds or times, but manifests at once all its treasures, and that
in a constant, universal, and unhindered way! God of truth and God of love! so actest
Thou daily with man. Amidst all mine infection and vileness Thy hand untiring extracts
what still remains of those precious and sacred elements of which Thou didst form me
at first. Like the thrifty woman in the Gospel consuming her light to recover the dime
which she lost, Thy lamps are ever lighted, ever Thou stoopest to earth, ever hopest to
recover from the dust that pure gold which has slipped from Thy hands. Men of peace!
how should we contemplate otherwise than with holy fear the extent of the mercies of
our God! We are a thousand times more guilty towards Him than, in the sight of human
justice are those malefactors who are dragged through cities and public places, loaded
with the insignia of infamy, and forced to confess their crimes aloud at the doors of the
temples and in the presence of the powers which they have defied. Like them, and a
thousand times more deservedly than they, should we be dragged ignominiously to the
feet of all the powers of Nature and the Spirit; we should be paraded like criminals
through all the regions of the universe, both visible and invisible, and should receive in
their presence the terrible and shameful chastisements which are invoked by our
appalling prevarications. But in place of finding stern judges armed with vengeance,
behold a venerable Monarch whose eyes publish His clemency, whose lips utter pardon
only for all those who do not blindly hold themselves guiltless. Far from willing that we
should wear henceforth the vestments of opprobrium, He commands His servants to
give back to us our primeval robe, to set a ring on our finger and shoes on our feet. For
all these favours it is enough, like later prodigal sons. to confess that we have not found
in the house of strangers the happiness of the house of the Father. Men of peace ! say,
shall we contemplate except with holy fear the infinite love and mercy of our God? Say,
shall we not make a holy resolution to remain faithful for ever to His laws and to the
beneficent counsels of His wisdom? O God! incomprehensible in indulgence and past
understanding in love, I can love but Thee alone; I would love none but Thee, who hast
forgiven me so much. I desire no place of repose except in the heart of my God, who
embraces all by His power, my support on every side, my succour and my consolation.
From this divine source all blessings pour on me at once. He pours Himself into the
heart of man continually and for ever. So does He engender within us His own life; so
does He establish within us the pure rays and extracts of His own essence, whereon He
loves to brood, and they become in us the organs of His endless generations. From this
sacred treasury, through all the faculties of our nature, He directs kindred emanations,
which repeat in turn their action through all that constitutes ourselves, and thus our
spiritual activity, our virtues, our lights are unceasingly multiplied. Behold, it is
exceeding profitable to erect Him a temple in our hearts! O men of peace! O men of
aspiration! say, shall we contemplate without a holy fear the vastness of the love and of
the mercies and of the powers of our God?

NINETH PRAYER

How should it be possible , O Lord, to sing here below the canticles of the Holy City?
Amidst such streams of tears, can we raise the hymns of jubilation? I lift up my voice to
begin them, but I utter sighs only and tones of pain. I am overwhelmed by the length of
my sufferings; my sin is ever before me, threatening instant death, with the chill of its
poisons freezing all my being. Even now it lays hold of my members; the moment
comes when I shall lie like a corpse which is left by hirelings to putrefaction. Yet Thou,
O Lord, who art the universal source of all that exists, art also the font of hope. If this
spark of flame be not already quenched in my heart, I still cling unto Thee, I am still
bound to Thy divine life by that deathless hope which springs for ever from Thy throne.
From the depth of my abyss I dare therefore to implore Thee, to pray that the hand of
Thy lovingkindness may heal me. How are the cures of the Lord effected? By humble
submission to the wise counsel of the Divine Physician. With gratitude and ardent desire
must I drink the bitter draught which His hand offers; my will must be joined with that
which animates Him towards me; the length and sufferings of the treatment must not
prompt me to reject the good which the Supreme Author of all goodness seeks to effect
in me. He is penetrated with the sense of my sufferings, and I have only to be enkindled
myself with the sense of His loving interest; then shall the chalice of salvation profit
me; then shall my tongue be strengthened to sing the canticles of the Holy City. Lord,
with what hymn shall I begin? With one to His honour and glory who has restored me to
health and effected my deliverance. From the rising of the sun to the going down of the
same will I chant this canticle over all the earth, not only to celebrate the power and
love of my Liberator, but to communicate to all desiring souls, to the entire human
family, the certain and efficacious means of recovering health and life for ever. I will
teach them thereby how the spirit of wisdom and truth may abide in their own hearts
and direct them in all their ways. Amen.

TENTH PRAYER

My soul hast thou strength to consider the enormity of that debt which guilty man has
contracted with Divinity ? If thou hast found strength for crime, thou hast good reason
to contemplate it in all its horror. Measure, therefore, in thy thought the vineyard of the
Lord; remember that man should tend it; conceive the wealth of the harvest which it
should produce under his care; think how all creatures under heaven await their
sustenance from its culture by thee, that the vineyard of the Lord awaits in like manner
its adornment at thy hands, that the Lord Himself awaits from thy fidelity and
watchfulness all the praise and glory which should accrue from the fulfilment of His
plans. But thou hast fallen; the dominion of the enemy upon thee; thou hast made barren
the Lord’s ground, brought the dwellers therein to want, and filled God’s heart with
sadness. Thou hast dried up the source of wisdom and of increase in this lower world,
and still thou dost hinder daily the productions of the Lord. Consider the extent of thy
debt, the inpossibility of its payment. The fruits of each year are owing from the
moment of thine infidelity, the wages of all the hours which have passed since that fatal
hour. Where is the being who shall acquit thee in the sight of that eternal justice whose
dues cannot be cancelled, whose designs must attain their fulfilment? Herein, O God
supreme, are exhibited the torrents of Thy mercy and the inexhaustible abundance of
Thine eternal treasures. Thy heart is opened towards Thy hapless creature: not only his
debts are discharged, but a surplus remains with which he may succour the needy. Thou
hast ordained Thy Word itself to cultivate the vineyard of man: that sacred Word whose
soul is love has come down into this barren place; the fire of His speech has consumed
all the parasitic and poisonous plants which choked it; He has sown the seed of the tree
of life in their place; He has opened up health-giving springs, and it has been moistened
by living waters, He has restored strength to the beasts of the earth, wings to the birds of
heaven, light to the starry torches, sound and speech to every spirit which abides in the
sphere of man. To the soul of man itself He has restored that love of which He . alone is
the source, which has inspired His holy and wonderful sacrifice. Eternal God of all
praise and grace, one only being, Thy Son Divine, could thus repair our disorders and
acquit us in the sight of Thy justice. The creative being alone could make restitution of
that which we squandered, for it needed a new creation. If, therefore, O universal
powers! ye strive to chant His praises who has reinstated you in your rights and restored
your activity, what thanks are not due from me, since He has become the hostage for my
debts Himself towards you, to all my brethren, and has discharged all? It was said of the
penitent woman that much was forgiven her because she had loved much But for man
all has been remitted, not only prior to his love, but while he was steeped in the horrors
of ingratitude. O men! O brethren ! let us give ourselves wholly to Him who has begun
by forgiving all to us. Each one of God’s movements is universal and is manifested in
every universe. Now, like unto this God supreme, be the movement of love universal in
all our nature, at once embracing all the faculties which compose us. Amen.